Assassin's Creed Syndicate Sales Rebound In Week Two

By Derek Nichols 18 February 2018

Ubisoft reveals in its latest earnings report that Assassin’s Creed Syndicate failed to beat the sales of Assassin’s Creed Unity in its first week, but the title rebounded in its second week.

Details over Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s launch performance have been released by Ubisoft during its latest earning report. While specific sales numbers were not revealed, Ubisoft did confirm that first week sales were down compared to last year’s title, Assassin’s Creed Unity.

Sales for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate recovered significantly in the second week, however, rebounding from its poor start and contributing to the improved metrics the game has been seeing over its predecessor. Ubisoft confirmed that specific key metrics such as total playtime, are not only significantly better than Unity but also the game is on pace for sales that match Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez linked the poor sales performance on week one to the ill-fated launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity, a game which struggled with glitches, bugs, and online related issues. Since launch, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has proven to be much more stable and with far less technical issues, something CEO Yves Guillemot believe helped the game rebound along with positive reviews from critics and strong word of mouth over social media.

Many believed Assassin’s Creed Syndicate faced an uphill battle out of the gate, as not only had the poor launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity affected consumer trust, but Ubisoft Montreal, an established veteran development studio had taken a backseat to the much younger Ubisoft Quebec studio in terms of lead development. It’s quite possible that players wanted to wait for reviews and also to ensure that the title wasn’t riddled with glitches and bugs out of the gate.

It’s clear that the poor launch and multitude of issues that plagued Assassin’s Creed Unity over its first few months has had an impact on Ubisoft. The company has been pretty open about the failures of the past and how it affected the development of this year’s entry in the series. Everyone in the company from developers to CEO Yves Guillemot have gone on record over what went wrong and how Ubisoft Quebec made sure to learn from those mistakes in order to create a better experience in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.

Are you playing Assassin’s Creed Syndicate or have plan to? For more on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, make sure to check out our positive review.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is now available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with the PC version slated for release on November 19.